Its not been easy for Aamir Khan, for he never was the mega ‘superstar’ that he is today. The 90s were dominated by the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan. Aamir crawled his way, all along concentrating on quality and content, to slowly make it to the top league and now beyond!
This decade after classics like Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai, Aamir took a 5 year long break due to marital issues and other personal problems. He returned with Mangal Pandey which didn’t do too well at the box office. Soon after which many in the media wrote him off.
Aamir stopped giving interviews and never really promoted the commercially risky Rang De Basanti. The movie went on to do great business, soon after which Aamir returned with the record breaking Fanaa. He then decided to take up direction and directed the brilliant Taare Zameen Par and the rest, including the historic business of Ghajini, is now history.
But no one in their wildest of dreams would have thought 3 Idiots would come close to Ghajini, leave alone beat the 65 crore record.
What has transpired in the last 5 days is beyond imagination, beyond belief. Aamir Khan has set the benchmark so high, that it would take nothing less than a miracle for other stars like Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar to come close.
There, no longer is a Top 4 – 5 in Bollywood, Aamir is in a totally different league altogether and without doubt the undisputed king of the box office!
@Aamish: I like ur comment about Oh no d title of Badshah n King Khan has been stolen from SRK, very funny keep posting entertaiment comment we are hear of it.
@Imtiaz: I am with u my friend i still wonder how Akele Hum Akele Tum fail to woo audience. Can any1 tell us the lapses of this movie, pls?
@Indicine: U are right, as an Akshay Kumar fan i salutes him. He is d owner of this Decade no doubt.
Ramya, Aamir was always under-rated in the 90s. He was never close to the force he is today. His films were always good and better than most of his rivals, yet huge box office success eluded him. Yes, Raja Hindustani and Rangeela were exceptions but even those films weren’t as huge as a Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or DDLJ.
A decade and a half later, when SRK is still as big as he was during those days, if not bigger.. Aamir has not just matched him, but gone past him by a distance.
Can any film break Ghajini’s record leave alone 3 Idiots, which is 10 – 20% higher? Highly unlikely.
i dont agree salman is bigger than aamir.
i can prove it just check the box office india report 3idiots single screen business is lower than wanted and we all know that the price of ticket in multiplex is gen 2 to 3 times more than single screen means if wanted netts 70cr of which 80% come from single screen 3 idiots is working more at multiplexes therefore collections will be higher but no of viewers we cant say . but in mean time i have watched the movie a complete family film 4 or 4and half stars for sure.
SRK had his last film (main role ) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi released on 12 dec 2008.
After that Aamir give two mega blockbuster on 25 dec 2008 and 25 dec 2009 .
Right now , we can say Aamir is king of box office .
Its now shahrukh’s turn to show his power and the big film is yet to come on 12 feb 2010.
I think final is nothing , shahrukh has been remained the boxoffice king until Ghajini , I have said it earlier.
3 Idiots could have advantage of being released in holidays but still I believe MNIK will do more business than 3 idiots but same doesn’t goes with VEER.
3 idiots is a good film as I rated 4.5 but I am sure MNIK will be a movie worth 5 rating.
Veer have good songs but It can not reach 3 idiots nor set any challenge on box office.
Well
I will said
Aamir is box office king for now AND Shahrukh is box office king for before now after and until he acts.
SALLU & KAT RULES AAJ TAK AWARDS:-
Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and 3 Idiots were the big winners at the Aaj Tak Movie Masala Awards 2009, which were announced on Tuesday. Completely audience driven, the winners were adjudged by viewers through SMS votes and online polling.
Salman walked away with the best actor (male) award for his role in the Boney Kapoor- produced action blockbuster, Wanted, which marked the Bollywood debut of Prabhu Deva as director.
Salman scored as an undercover cop who infiltrates the mafia with the mission of finishing off the underworld, recording 34 per cent of the total votes.
Viewers voted for him over the likes of Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor.
Salman’s real- life girlfriend Katrina Kaif was voted the best actress (female) for her role in Rajkumar Santoshi’s superhit comedy, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. The comic book rom- com cast Katrina opposite Ranbir. Katrina, the reigning glam goddess right now, polled 39 per cent votes, beating Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherji, Vidya Balan and Priyanka Chopra.
Katrina is out of the country and couldn’t come to personally collect the award.
The trophy for the best director went to Raj Kumar Hirani for 3 Idiots. The film, starring Aamir, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena, brilliantly narrated the coming- of- age story of three friends in their engineering college days.
SOURCE:- Indiatoday(dot)intoday(dot)in/site/Story/77091/Cinema/Sallu+&+Kat+rule+Aaj+Tak+awards.html
INDICINE this for you , aamir is not bigger than srk ,
Aamir is having his good time . Actually he is benefited from the facts :
1) he is not hated as shahrukh or salman.
2) he takes his time for making films , I liked only Tare zamee par and 3 idiots , some old movies in 90’s.
3) time of release is end of year and mostly holiday 1st weekend which now times decide fate of movies.
4) from last two years he has been able to create hype.
5) Most obvious , he is dedicated and works hard .
But SRK is the most consistent actor in terms of box office .
He came late than salman and aamir , didn’t have any back except talent and luck ,
and ruled the box office with his charisma.
INDICINE , you said
Can any film break Ghajini’s record leave alone 3 Idiots, which is 10 – 20% higher? Highly unlikely.
why are you making such comments , you are underestimating two most awaited films veer and mnik.
Do not make such comments , you also thought 3 idiots will not be able to break the ghajini’s record but it break.
If I remind you , Aamir set a record with ghajini and then with 3 idiots , so atleast give 1 chance to Srk to break any record set by Aamir before making such comments. After all MNIK will be SRK’s (main role) first movie after ghajini .
just wait and lets see.
hey amit this is 4 you,
If u think MNIK’s gonna do sumthin bigger than ghajini or 3 IDOITS, FORGET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!. srk’s movies r always been one sided, same romantic heroic roles year after year. whose gonna watch mnik if 90%of the movie is all RONA-DHONA, only karan johar fans wud go 4 it,but still, take my advice,forget mnik,cos srk doesnt hav “I’ll do it on my terms”Attitude like aamir
@ Amit
Aamir is not the only one who makes use of holiday season. Earlier, most SRK movies like KKHH, DDLJ, DTPH, Mohabbatein Don, OSO etc., released on the Diwali weekend and benifitted from the Diwali-Eid holidays. Even Hrithik’s huge hits such as KMG, Krishh and Dhoom 2 released during summer vacation months and made it big.
It’s not just Aamir who releases his films at a strategic time.
Aamir’s rise is also remarkable because the media really tries to undermine him and always tries to create negative publicity around him and his films. The media never proclaims him as a king (and certain publications never even call him a superstar) and always twists his statements and presents them in a negative manner. In fact, at the time of Ghajini, last year, despite Ghajini shattering all records they kept writing that it wasn’t that big a hit and that Aamir was inflating its collections. Even now, some channels are deliberately not reporting about Aamir or 3 Idiots at all and are focussing on Ranbirs and Katrinas or are still reporting about Paa!
When Aamir was touring the country as a part of ARG, the media never even bothered to report about it and some Anti-Aamir channels like Headlines Today, also said that he’d stoop to any level to promote his film!
When someone else markets his film, he is called a marketing genius. But when Aamir does it, he’s called a marketing monster!
The media even called Lagaan as old wine in a new bottle. Every time when an Aamir film is about to release, the media leaves no stone unturned to either malign Aamir or spread crap rumours about the film or the media chooses to completely ignore Aamir and doesn’t report about his film at all!
Whereas other stars, especially like SRK and Amitabh get full support and hype from the media (even if their films don’t do well!).
Aamir has battled the constant negativity from media, the bias from award juries and has risen to the top without the help of camps (unlike SRK who only sticks to Chopras, Johar and Farah Khan), without having sexy super model heroines in his films, without working with many big stars (unlike SRK, whose biggest films also had biggest stars starring with him – such as KANK, Mohabbatein, DTPH, K3G etc. and who even got 30 stars to do a song in his film and draw attention), without sticking to a particular popular onscreen persona (such as SRK’s Rahul or Salman’s Prem or Amitabh’s Vijay) and now he has broken overseas records too WITHOUT doing shows or concerts in foreign cities, WITHOUT shooting his film at foreign locations and without flying to various big cities around the world to promote 3 Idiots.
That’s why it’s no surprise that he is the real superstar. In his career, he’s given commercial hits, top grossers, critically acclaimed films, arthouse films as well as films that greatly impacted the social fabric and psyche of India and has been awesomely versatile and dared to experiment at the prime of his career (unlike Big B, who has started experimenting only later in his career). There’s no one like Aamir. Period.
[All stars have their place, but it’s high time Aamir got his rightful due.]
@Amit
Make some more excuse , & u think MNIK will break 3 i records. Keep dreaming. Karan Johars film r not for breaking records. Aamir is the undisputed Emperor ( not the King , as this tag belongs to SRK ) as alwayes.
AAMIR is one of the great versatile ACTORS bollywood has ever produced….like Dev Anand, Dilip kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh, Salman, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt….They are not like SRK who got success only in Romantic Roles…SRK is not the King…itz all media hype….AAMIR is the REAL KING of bollywood…Even SALMAN has got success in diff. kind of roles…like romance, action, comedy, serious….the only role salman has never done is negative…but In his upcomin movies DABAANG & MR.India2…he is doin negative roles….
AAMIR & SALMAN ROXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
well said Ramya well said.
another 2 actors who dent get dere due r Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashimi
dear indicine team
no doubt aamir is currently the undisputed no. 1 but please don’t come to the conclusions so early. business trend has changed drastically from last 2 years. an average fair like rab ne has done around 85 crore. my point is we have to wait atleast for 6 months more for the releases like Veer. MNIK & Kites because all these films are most awaiting and have great anticipations. after these release we truely able to compare who is at the top. If u see after the release of Ghajini ther isn’t any big release from Shahrukh & Hrithik. In my opinion its possible that MNIK and Kites may challenge the records set by 3I and ghajini. so we have to wait 6 months more for true Picture.
I need your opinion on my point of view.
Thank you
“Srk is the emperor of bollywood”
I agree with amit and Ramya both.
Srk is the most popular and most loved ever actor in the bollywood history. The whole world knows srk .No doubt after Gajni and 3 idiots Amir is on top till 12th feb. He deserved that.
If we see overall record of both srk and amir we can see who is emperor. Srk has been ruling this industry for many years. Srk achievements has no comparison. Amir has only one year 2009 to rule bollywood. Becuase there is no srk movie released this year. No doubt Amir is an exellent actor. But not emperor. Srk is one and only emperor of bollywood.
So wait till 12 feb. Mnik will break all records. I am very much sure. Time will tell. There is nothing impossible for srk( The emperor of bollywood). Srk has billions of fans around the world. You can’t underestimate srk.
I think MNIK will break this record easily
because its SRK – Kajol power…
Who et on this…
I bet…tis record is just till 12 Feb
after 12 Feb you all wll see hurricane….
MNIK will beat 3 idiots
“Srk Best Actor of Decade”
According to iifa awards the best actor of decade was srk. Srk won best actor of decade for Devedas.
Hi indicine team!
Very good article about Aamir is undisputed king(!) Am from united kingdom and aamir have huge fan followin here(only media created that only srk and akki sales abroad)believe me sir last wensday 3i were released in leicester and i jst came from odeon cinem and didnt get tickets for my family members!!!!they r showin 3 shaws and all shaws are housefull!thats aamirs financials success!!!!Now come to the real terms Aamir is never been king or badshah of bollyywood and i wish he never will be and Aamir will never claim it(as some other stars loved dem being called king or badshah)
i still remember that days in june 1990(srk wasnt even big star)Aamir camre to uk and people queued up to get glance of his,he was still huge star in overseas but media has always created that srk is bigger star in abroad!Aamir is acor he is not star if you look at his filmograph u will see all different roles he has played!Undoubtely he is biggest actor of the decade and all time greats(only sajid khan and his sister and chopras and johar will never admit)
thanx
@Ar: May be iifa are mistaken the title of the Award, is supposed to be “THE BEST ACTOR IN THE 1ST OF THE DECADE”, since that DEVDAS is released in 2002 if i am not mixtake. We need good 10 yrs 4 a decade, I hope u understand Mr. Ar?
Well said Ramya!
Wotever u have said every bit of it true!thats wot i said in my comment that media has laways said that isrk is the most poppular actor abroad and there is no doubt he has fan following but aamir has tremendous fan folloowin in uk!media has always backed srk and am not agaist anyone!i think srk is decent actor but to tell he is best actor is out of the mark!its about the time Aamir gets wot he deserves!
aamir “ace” khan is the king of kings now! MAN among boyz!
b4 all of yu start Monkey around with the idea of declarin decade’s superstar i want yu to look at this.
Lagaan
TZP
3 IDIOTS
Ghajini
RDB
these 5 movies r the best movies in bollywood this decade. wot can beat LAGAAN?? no other movie has. wot can beat TZP in quality ?? 3 idiots n ghajni??? settin up the new records. wot bout Rang De Basanti??? no other movie has even come close to be so influential.
Halakoo, business trends have undoubtedly changed over the years, but for a film to do as well as 3 Idiots has done, there are several factors.
1) Star value – Aamir stands for quality and people blindly go watch his films. Hrithik and SRK are equally popular if not more, but don’t really have the same reputation that Aamir has earned over the last few years.
2) Director – Look at Love Aaj Kal, major share of credit should go to Imtiaz Ali and not Saif Ali Khan for the 40 crore opening. The audience these days is clever, its not all about stars anymore. Neither Karan nor Anurag Basu have the same kind of following.
3) Positive word of mouth – No film can survive beyond Sunday, if the audience verdict is negative. So apart from Aamir’s star value its the love the film has garnered from its audience that has resulted in 9 – 10 crore weekdays.
So unless Kites and My Name Is Khan or any other film for that matter, gets everything right, the 3 Idiots record will remain unbroken.
Both Kites and My Name Is Khan should do better overseas, somehow don’t see Kites doing too well here.
Vick, Dil Chahta Hai was one of the best this decade too. Compiling the list of Top 10 films this decade is gonna be real tough!
hey guys:)))
Three Idiots was rock steady on Wednesday with drops from around 10% from the previous day. The film lost business of around 70-80 lakhs as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were shut for the day.
The early estimate for business on Wednesday is around 8 crore nett. It would have been 8.75 crore if it did not lose business in Andhra and Karnataka.
The total so far is 69.75 crore nett approx after 6 days and paid previews, another 7-8 crore can be expected on Thursday for the week to end at a humungous 77-78 crore nett.
@ SRK fans
One more thing I’d like to say:
Some of you are saying that 3 Idiots is breaking records just because no SRK or Hrithik film released this year. Let me remind you that last year Aamir smashed all box office records and washed away SRK’s RNBDJ and Hrithik’s Jodhaa Akbar’s B-O collections were nowhere near Ghajini!
Aamir defeated SRK and Hrithik last year itself.
Also, Aamir is no less popular but in terms of perception maybe some people might perceive him to be less popular, because he doesn’t promote himself.
Whatever marketing or promotions he does, are only for his films. He has never tried to promote himself. Like SRK, he could have also got his filmmaker friends to make documentaries on him or his writer friends to write biographies and books on him – but NO, he never did any such thing.
Recently, an author who is writing a book on him, approached him to give interviews for the book, but he simply refused. Even in 2002, a biography of Aamir was released, titled Aamir Khan: An Actor With a Difference – Aamir never promoted or publicised that book.
If it was SRK, he would have publicised his biography to the hilt! In fact, SRK also gave out free copies of his biography Still Reading Khan on KBC 2 (as a consolation to contestants who failed to go at higher level in the game).
Aamir’s fans from countries like Algeria, Italy and Romania keep asking him (on his blog) to release his films in their countries and dub his films in their languages – but Aamir has not yet done it.Whereas, SRK makes sure that his films are dubbed in Polish/German/French etc. languages and released abroad. If SRK is popular in Poland or Germany, that’s because he has publicised himself and his films there (even his biography – King of Bollywood was translated in Polish and sold at bookstores all over).
Aamir can also get his films dubbed in foreign languages, play NRI in every film, deliberately shoot films and songs at exotic locations abroad and get honours from the governments of those countries for promoting tourism (like SRK does), he can do concerts abroad, get lots of books written on him and documentaries made on him – but NO – he does NOT do so!
Notice how SRK is promoting MNIK on the basis of his magical pair with Kajol, whereas Aamir promoted 3 Idiots on the basis of its theme and did not shout about how he’d be seen with Kareena or how the RDB gang is back!
Aamir is no less popular than anyone. But the nature of his fandom is different. His fans don’t believe in creating 1000s of blogs on him or hacking all online polls to make sure that he wins, nor have they constructed temples in his name. But they trust him, give him honest feedback, also criticise him vehemently when needed, express their love and respect as well, give him suggestions etc., unlike fans of other stars who only keep chanting praises of their Kings! Aamir is active and in news only for a certain time period every year, and fans also start becoming more active only when his film is about to release.
Unlike SRK, who keeps appearing at every event to make news even when his film is not releasing!
Aamir can also go to every event and party in town and appear on page 3 every day. But he doesn’t do so!
You talk of Aamir’s star power? Do you know whenever Aamir posts a status update on Facebook, in less than 1 minute he gets more than 50 responses?!
2000 is only the basic minimum number of comments that his each blog post gets! He gets more than 5000 comments and some posts even get more than 9000 comments!
The largest fansite on Aamir Khan that posts all his newest as well as rarest old videos and photos is Aamirkhan.borda.ru – which is a Russian site, created and managed by Russian fans! Even Aamirkhan.org, has been created by a girl called Shaima who is from France. Even on Facebook, most groups on Aamir Khan and his films have been created by people from USA, Kuwait, Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. One Facebook group which called Aamir as the King Khan was created by a British girl (and she’s not an NRI!).
In Forbes list of Most Bankable stars, Aamir was the highest ranking male star from India and he ranked at 540 whereas SRK ranked at 735 way behind Aamir! Even in 2001, Aamir was the only star apart from Amitabh and Hrithik to be listed in Forbes list of India’s most powerful movie stars. Recently, Aamir was the only actor/entertaimment personality, to be listed among the Most Powerful Indians by Forbes.
In 2006, Aamir was the only actor to feature in The Guardian’s list of Stars of India (the list of influential people who were responsible for changing India).
In 2006 itself, Aamir was voted as the REAL KING KHAN in a poll conducted by Hindustan Times. [It isn’t just the Ghajini-3 Idiots effect that got him the King title]
Aamir got the best actor of the last decade award at the Imagine India Film Festival in Spain in 2006. He was chosen as Best Actor of the Decade by the Telegraph. He was the only actor to feature in Sify’s list of 10 People who defined this decade. He was the only actor to feature in Tehelka’s list of people who were the game changers of this decade. [If you want links then I can post them here for proof]
Aamir is the only actor after Raj Kapoor and Shabana Azmi to be on the jury of the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. And he’s the only actor after Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan to get the Dinanath Mangeshkar Memorial Award for contribution to cinema. He was the first among today’s contemporary actors to get the Padma Shri (SRK and others got the award after him). His success ratio is second only to Dilip Kumar and is higher than Amitabh Bachchan (according to NDTV India report called No.1 Ka Sach telecast earlier this year).
He was voted as the Best Actor in a survey conducted by Outlook magazine sometime in 1999. He was voted as the all time best actor after Amitabh Bachchan in another survey conducted by Outlook magazine in 2008.
But Aamir has never tried to publicise these facts to boost his image!!
Lagaan is making it to best films of the decade list in many international publications. Taare Zameen Par is getting screened by all child care and learning disorders awareness organisations around the world till date.
In fact, Aamir Khan and Taare Zameen Par were also nominated for Best director and Best Film at the International Bogocine Film Festival in Bogota this year. [Aamir never publicised this news!]
Aamir was the only actor in India, who Prince Charles visited personally, when he came to India in 2004.
He was the only actor apart from Aishwarya Rai who was invited to meet President Bush when he visited India in 2004. When Princess Victoria of Sweden visited India last year, Aamir was the only actor she personally met and she congratulated him for TZP. Aamir was the only actor/entertainment personality from India who was invited to Audrey Hepburn’s 80th birthday celebrations in Berlin.
Please notice the difference here – while SRK himself invites foreign celebrities like Gerard Butler and Jermaine Jackson to his parties and tries to network with videshi celebrities – it is Aamir Khan who himself gets invites from royalty and dignataries as well as entertainment personalities.
Aamir was also approached by Madame Tussauds for his wax statue – but he refused it. Even Salman said that Aamir should have been the first one to be immortalised at Madame Tussauds!
This year, Germany’s leading newspaper – The Sueddeustche Zeitung, did a long story on Aamir titled – The God Of Bollywood – they not only praised him, but also called him GOD OF BOLLYWOOD and also described how his films like RDB, TZP etc., were impacting Indian society. It was only some German fans who translated this article in English and shared it with fans on Aamir’s blog.
Aamir never shouted from the rooftops how Germany’s largest newspaper covered him!! He never tried to make sure that all news channels in India cover this story!
Also, while Aamir goes to international award ceremonies (such as Oscars) and film festivals as a bona fide nominee, SRK goes only as a guest (for eg., Golden Globes).
Aamir can also do PR, networking and whatnot to promote himself and get awards and honorary degrees from foreign universities and make sure that media highlights his achievements and contributions and the charity or social work he does. But he never does so!
Maybe if he had done all this, then he might have been seemingly perceived as a bigger star. But he’s content doing his work and leaving it at that, rather than positioning himself as some magical icon!
Aamir Khan is indeed the no.1 superstar today. However, many followers of this site are wrong about some box-office facts.Dil Chahta Hai was a flop except in Mumbai territory. In Mumbai, at Central Plaza it completed 50 weeks in noon shows.However, it was dragged to complete a golden jubilee.In the last 10-15 weeks the collections were hardly 10-15%.I saw the movie on the last day and there were only 5 persons! Rangeela was a blockbuster in Mumbai but a flop in the Eastern Circuit.
@Ramya
Wowwwwwwwww .. what a comment .. I truly think that I have not read such a gr8 comment in a long long tym .. its like you stole all thoughts from my mind and wrote it here
I found that your analysis is perfect .. I have been a fan of Aamir ever since I was a small kid and watched Hum Hain Rahi pyar ke .. He has always been an under appreciated actor even though he constantly gave Indian cinema one of the best movies of all time .. And I am truly happy now that he is getting his fair share of recognition
You know what earlier Aamir used to do similar kind of good movies but he never had this much hype around his movies .. Now only difference with as much as good quality he generates similar hype and hence his movies are fetching this much collections
Think if Lagaan would have released now how much it would have cashed upon this hype and popularity .. People now know that if its Aamir’s movie their 200 rs wont be wasted and hence they shell out the money .. And as I have said earlier in my posts I dont give a damn about no 1 position and all those things as long as Aamir keeps churnning out good movies like Lagaan, DCH, RDB and now 3 idiots .. CONGRATS AAMIR
Amir khan is the king of bollywood i like amir khan’s movies very much…………..pravin
100% agreed…at last aamir is admitted the king ov bollywood n he has proved it by hardwork n being choosy abouT the roles..there is no comparison b/w him n SRK bcoz Ak IS on the peak ov success..GOD bless him wid more success (amin)